The National Radiocommunications Company (SNR) started testing the WiMAX technology, which will enable operators to develop new services for the residential customers and companies, according to company sources. SNR’s first broadband services will be launched in Romania in 2006’s first trimester. In order to check the new technology in a normal traffic regime, the operator will set up six WiMAX base stations in Cluj, Timis and Suceava.

The top ten players achieved just less than 70 percent of market revenue, up from 60 percent in 2003, suggesting that the process of market consolidation continued in 2004.
The main factors behind the evolution are economic growth, large privatization deals, and vertical market development, according to the study. The Romanian IT services market is predicted to expand by an annual average of 16.8 percent over the next few years, eventually reaching $365.20 million in 2009.

Common action plan regarding the communications in emergency situations

19-8-2005

Today, The Secretary of State for Communications, Florin Bejan, convoked a meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Emergency Situations at the MCIT headquarters. Representatives of the Special Telecommunications Service, National Regulatory Authority for Communications, Romanian Intelligence Service, and of national communications operators: Mobifon (Connex), Orange România, Telemobil (Zapp), SN Radiocomunicaţii, Romtelecom and Poşta Română attended the meeting.

The Secretary of State, Florin Bejan asked the members of the Ministerial Committee for Emergency Situations to present action plans in case of disasters, according to the identified risk areas and the intervention equipment that they have at their disposal. These plans are going to be used for elaborating a common action plan that could be at the disposal of the authorities.

Simpler Authorisation Procedures for the Providers of
Private Electronic Communications Networks and Services

3-8-2005

Since July 29, 2005, Law no.239/2005 on the amendment and completion of several normative acts in the field of communications has simplified the authorisation procedure for the persons who intend to provide private electronic communications networks or services using radio-electric frequencies. Now, these providers shall address directly the Inspectorate General for Communications and Information Technology in order to be granted the licence for the use of radio-electric frequencies, without notifying ANRC first. Following the issuance of a licence for the use of radio-electric frequencies, the providers may actually start providing private electronic communications networks or services.

The recently launched
direct-to-home system could bring
television and radio transmissions
to over 600,000 people in Romania.
Major players on the TV cable
market are offering this new
service, which caters for those
living in isolated areas as well
as demanding viewers, weekly
Business Review reports in a
feature article carried in its
latest issue.

The 8th edition of BINARY - Software and Electronics Fair in Eastern Europe will take place between September 28th and 30th.
The fair will gather representatives from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education and Research, and businessmen. It will host two contests: The Competition for National Awards and the e-Idea Contest. The event aims at promoting valuable ideas from pupils and students, in which Romanian IT companies could invest.

Digital Cable System launched last week Direct-To-Home (DTH) Max TV. The service is based on an agreement between DCS and Nordic Satellite AB to transmit the TV signal through satellite.

The company is the first of its kind to open an office in Romania, according to its officials. “We have already been part of Romania’s technological development process for five years. Our official presence in Romania will have a direct impact on the progress of the local market,” said Per Norman, general manager of Nordic Satellite AB.

Among the Romanian TV channels that have signed contracts with NSAB and are being transmitted through the Sirius 2 satellite are all the channels of Media Pro, Realitatea TV, Etno TV, Taraf TV, and TVKalumea.

The turnover of e-commerce this year is set to rise by 50 percent in Romania from last year, while the number of Romanians who use the internet is up by 20 percent, according to representatives of the Romanian IT industry.

The same sources estimate that by the end of this year online transactions will reach $80 million.
The data were presented during the Developing e-business trends in Romania and the European market conference held at Internetics.

Recent data suggest the best known types of e-business are e-shop, e-mail, e-procurement and e-auction. In 2004 $2 million was spent on online advertising. IT representatives say that e-business has high and rapidly increasing potential. A high proportion of e-business comes from B2C (business to consumer) commerce, which has more than two million potential consumers with a growth rate of 30 percent annually.

Richard Moat, CEO of Orange
Romania, talks about the mobile
operator’s key strategy for
delivering high-speed data
services to its subscribes. With
announced investments of about
$250 million in 2005, his company
is ready to face the
Is the recently announced
re-launch of Cosmorom going to
unleash a price war on the mobile
telephony market?
Cosmorom has been dormant for some
time, which is highly unusual,
given that it is the mobile
subsidiary of the fixed-wire
incumbent. Normally, such a
company is the dominant mobile
market player. So it’s highly
unusual to be back in fourth
place. We have to take the
re-launch and the re-branding of
Cosmorom seriously because there
are many examples of third or
fourth entrances that have become
very successful. Usually, third
and fourth players entering a
market have been more successful
when penetration has been
relatively low. This is not the
case in Romania where penetration
will probably reach 60 percent by
the end of the year, and there are
already very strong players on the
market. Nevertheless, we have to
take their arrival seriously. As
regards a price war, I don’t
want to speculate on what their
strategy might be. To some degree
the development of the market
depends as much on what the two
major players – Orange and
Connex – decide to do, as on
what Cosmorom decides to do.http://www.businessromania.com/index.php

POSTelecom – a third way!?

6-5-2005

On July 17th 2002, Posta Romana announced its intentions to enter fixed telephony market via attracting a Chinese partner. The progress was not too rapid and on August 21st 2003, the documents aiming to establish a new telco - POSTelecom were signed in Beijing in the presence of state leaders and communications ministers. Today, after more than one year and half from Beijing event, POSTelecom remains a promise.

US mobile phone maker Motorola wants to become the top player on the local market in 2005 and hopes to be behind half the sales of third generation phones finding their way into Romanian pockets this year.

Motorola, which three years ago was around fifth or sixth on the market in Western Europe, has recently begun to focus on boosting sales on developed markets and has gained a foothold in Russia, which is a very large market.

Motorola has also successfully doubled its performance in terms of the number of units sold in Europe last year, with revenues three times higher than in 2003. "This makes it possible for us to take on the markets of Eastern Europe, and we see Romania as very important for us," explained Estell.

According to company representatives, the good results mean that the promotion budget for 2005 has doubled. Motorola is confident that 3G will be a success in Romania and for this reason officials from the company chose to present the latest phones that will become available on the local market.

As of this summer, it is highly likely managers will be able to track the whereabouts of their employees by using a new service currently in the preparations stage at Orange Romania.

The provisional name of the new service is "Monitoring", though this could change before the commercial launch of the service planned for June of this year, said George Soare, project manager with Orange.

>From the outset, the service will be available throughout the entire country and will allow managers to find out the approximate location of any of their employees. Managers will need only select an employee's number from a predefined list in order to view his or her position on a map that will appear on the computer screen. The service will be accurate to within 500 metres inside cities and 20-30 kilometres in the countryside.

The Romanian IT market will increase by 12% in 2005 compared with last year, according to officials from US software giant Microsoft, who quoted data from a recent survey by researcher IDC. The same survey shows that the software market will double in size by 2008.

The Romanian software market was worth 84 million dollars last year (68 million euros at the average annual exchange rate), and will amount to 134 million dollars (103.7 million euros) by 2008, says IDC. It is expected to reach 95 million dollars (73 million euros) in 2005.

Growth of the software market will also lead to an increase in the number of jobs in this sector, Microsoft officials say. Software specialists will account for around 43% of total IT sector employees in Romania in 2008. The Microsoft officials also talked about their presence in Romania, where they say relations with local partners "are going very well".

Vodafone, the world's largest mobile telephone company, has bought mobile telephone operator MobiFon-Connex in the biggest deal Romania has seen for 15 years. The total transaction will be worth 3.5bn dollars (2.6bn euros) and also includes the takeover of Czech operator Oskar Mobil from Canadian Telesystem International Wireless Group, the majority shareholder in the two operators. At the same time, the British operator will take on 950 million dollars of net debts.

The deal was made on Monday night, with Connex employees receiving e-mail notification of the news from Ted Lattimore, the company's president and COO. Officials from the two companies did not give any details as to the value of the two operators in the deal individually. However, analysts believe most of the money was paid for MobiFon, which has a market value of 2-3bn dollars (1.5-2.3bn euros).

The International Alliance for Intellectual Property (IIPA) will recommend that American authorities continue monitoring Romania regarding copyright protection, said Magda Popescu, a lawyer at the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Romania.
Among the reasons for monitoring, Popescu mentioned the inefficiency in enforcing the criminal law for software piracy and the low number of fines levied for these crimes.
The office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) analyzes the efficiency of intellectual property rights protection in over 80 countries. Romania has been on the office's "Watch List," since 1999, together with other countries the USTR believes should be monitored.
Popescu said that if Romania remains on the list, the investment decisions of American software companies in Romania may be negatively influenced. "Before making a decision, an American investor in the software or other domains involving copyrights will check this report. What's written in this report might make him change his mind," Popescu explained.

The Romanian software and IT services industry is centred on Bucharest, where more than 60% of the total turnover is made, while Vaslui County is at the bottom of the list, with only 27 people employed in the IT sector, a survey by the National Association of Software and Services Industry (ANIS) shows.

The survey was based on data collected from financial statements from IT companies in 2003, data from the National Statistics Institute and data from ANIS members themselves. Romania is suffering from the "software divide" phenomenon, ANIS officials said, paraphrasing the expression "digital divide", which is used to describe the technological development gaps between nations.

Despite the negligible number of new phone lines installed and the drop in the amount of time spent by Romanians on their home phone, RomTelecom has nonetheless managed to report profits for last year. This can be explained by the aggressive efficiency improvement policy it has been pursuing, which saw 5,700 layoffs in 2004 with 50 million euros spent on severance pay.

RomTelecom's revenues for last year amounted to 839.1 million euros, an increase of 5%, with net income also increasing to 107.1 million euros, compared with the net losses of more than 13 million euros in 2003. Operating income went up 31% to 285 million euros.

The improved results were achieved despite the number of new phone lines installed increasing by a mere 0.2% to 4.3 million and the total volume of calls logged in the RomTelecom network dropping by 3%. RomTelecom is left with approximately 18,000 employees and is preparing a new strategy to take on its main rivals, the mobile telephone operators.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/mnb-.php3?n_id=8235

RomTelecom Sale To Be Completed By End 2006

21-2-2005

The Romanian state’s 46 percent participation in the fixed-line operator RomTelecom is to be sold on the stock exchange market by end 2006. A first part of the shares will be sold this year or early next year the latest, according to the IT&C minister Zsolt Nagy. “We have talked to OTE, RomTelecom’s major shareholder, and we have decided on the sale deadline for end 2006”, Nagy said. As for the company’s mobile arm, Cosmorom, Nagy said a decision was to be taken with OTE. “Our plans are to relaunch this service as we need a third operator on the market. A decision is to be issued in several months”, Nagy said.http://www.businessromania.com/index.php?x=readnews&sid=5998

Microsoft Romania Planning To Open More Offices

15-2-2005

Following the development of the lending system in Romania, Microsoft is now focusing on its idea of selling even its software in instalments, which would undoubtedly push the market higher.
One of the concepts currently under discussion at Microsoft is the model for supplying software in the same way as services. Customers will be able to opt between monthly payments, as with normal post-paid phone bills, and advance payment, as with prepaid systems.
This would be complementary to the solution whereby the Windows platform or applications are acquired in instalments with the computers. When customers buy a computer in instalments, for several additional dollars per month they could have a complete and legal Windows system. This will boost the company's sales, says the Microsoft manager.
Mr Hotaran believes that 2005 will witness even higher growth for businesses in Romania and the Eastern European region. "In Romania, we will take the major, countrywide projects further, together with the domestic software industry," he explained. The company is trying to cover the geography of the country in a better way by opening offices in Transylvania, Moldova, Constanta, and the southern region.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/mnb-.php3?n_id=8151

RomTelecom Slots ARTelecom

11-2-2005

RomTelecom has taken over by merger the Internet services provider ARTelecom. The merger decision was taken by the two companies shareholders at the beginning of November and became operational as of February 1 when ARtelecom was erased from the Trade Registry. The merger will not affect RomTelecom’s equity. All ARtelecom’s employees will be transferred to RomTelecom. ARtelecom was established in 2001 having RomTelecom as majority shareholder with more than 99 percent of the
stake.http://www.businessromania.com/index.php?x=readnews&sid=5959

Softwin sets out BBC curriculum strategies

7-2-2005

Romanian IT firm Softwin has revealed that it wrote programs that passed through two difficult UK-based BBC education curriculum tests, being the sole foreign firm elected alongside 25 British firms to bid for a broader EUR 250 million, four-year program.
Mariuca Talpes, co-founder and division manager, and Sorin Guleac, e-Learning Product Manager, are now seeking business English teachers to help them design a new product. Building competitive education IT programs is centered on teachers from Romania and abroad that have helped it get this far.http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1622

Astral looks to buy more cable & data

26-1-2005

Reports that
Astral Telecom has bought
CableVision of Romania (CVR) for
$8 million have been denied by
Astral president Aurel Costea, who
did however confirm to Business
Review that Astral is looking at a
number of companies and awaiting a
minority stake to change hands.

Astral is looking to invest $12
million in its own network this
year and will invest more into new
networks if opportunities arise,
president of Astral Telecom Aurel
Costea told Business Review. A
recent article in the local press
reporting that Astral had bought
the cable TV services provider
CableVision of Romania (CVR) was
denied by Costea, who refused to
make further comment. The article
reported that Romtelecom, which
owns a 96 percent stake in CVR,
sold the company for $8 million to
Astral.http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1560

Connex to start 3G in eight cities using Ericsson net

24-1-2005

Ericsson signed a framework agreement last week to supply local mobile operator Connex with equipment and services needed to roll out the first 3G network in Romania, a WCDMA one
The value of the deal was not disclosed, and Connex officials told Business Review that the exact date of the 3G launch cannot be disclosed either.
However, they said that Connex would have the first 3G service launched on the market. “The service will most probably launch in eight major cities, and tests have been already been made in Bucharest, Cluj, Brasov and Craiova,” Connex officials told BR. Under the agreement, Ericsson will deliver and implement 3G core and radio network equipment as well as system integration and optimization services, including multi-vendor integration. It will also provide competence development and technical support services for the supplied solutions.http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1564

Portable Numbers As Of End 2006

20-1-2005

Changing the telephone company without necessarily changing the number will also become possible in Romania sometime next year. In a first phase, only fixed telephony numbers will be portable. Costs related to keeping the number upon moving to another service provider will be billed to the user. In Europe, costs range between EUR 10 and 31 for a fixed telephony number and between EUR 0 and 47 for a mobile number. One foreseeable problem is that a caller will no longer know which company services the number called, and this raises the matter of whether the respective call is within the caller's network or not.

The Romanian Radio-communication National Corporation (Radiocomunicatii SA) invested 1,314 billion lei (some EUR 32.5 million) in 2004, 15 percent less than in 2003, when investment stood at 1,539 billion lei, Radiocomunicatii chairman Gabriel Grecu said. Over 2001-2004, Radiocomunicatii SA conducted a large scale program to modernize the national radio broadcasting networks, which included the FM relay network upgrade and expansion, for the broadcasting of the Romania Actualitati and Romania Cultural radio stations, launching the equipment upgrade program related to territorial units and the AM network which broadcasts the Romania Actualitati programs in the medium bandwidth.

2485 companies have been authorised to provide electronic communications networks or services

20-12-2004

2485 companies have been authorised to provide electronic communications networks or services. At present, 561 companies have the right to provide data transmissions services, 669 – Internet access services, and 221 – professional mobile radio-communications services. Concerning the fixed-line telephony services, 144 companies may provide local calls, 150 – long distance calls, and 167 – international calls. Regarding the user connection method, among the companies providing Internet access services, 445 will use radio connection and 336 will use dial-up connection.http://www.anrc.ro/en/situatii.htm

Romania in top nations regarding IT&C consumption

09-12-2004

The total IT&C expenses in Romania have increased in the last 4 years by an average annual rate of 18.8 per cent, being estimated at USD 1.9 bln this year, according to a survey drafted by Global Insight for World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).
Among the total expenditures estimated for the period 2001-2004, those for IT are expected to grow by an average rate of 8.4 per cent, while those for communication by 22.3 per cent. Communications will attract, this year as well, the biggest share of the expenditures, meaning 79 per cent (USD 1.509 bln).http://www.nineoclock.ro/business_details.php

IT company CG&GC signs PPP contract

06-12-2004

Wednesday, November
10, 2004, the Government Decision
no.1872/2004 for the approval of the
amendments to the 2004 income and
expenditure budget of the National
Regulatory Authority for
Communications was published in the
Official Journal of Romania, Part I,
no.1040. Based on this normative act,
within the ANRC budget for the year
2004, the resources allotted for
financing universal service are
specifically itemised both in Chapter
“Incomes” and in Chapter
“Expenditures”. The amount of the
universal service fund for 2004 is
approximately EUR14.3 million, i.e.
0.8% from the turnover of the
providers of electronic communications
public networks and of the publicly
available telephone services providers
with a 2003 registered turnover
exceeding or equal to EUR 3 million.
The turnover registered by the
respective providers was beforehand
diminished by the incomes resulted
from interconnection services and from
roaming services offered on the
wholesale market to the mobile
telephony providers outside Romania
for their users located in Romania. http://www.businessromania.com/

New standards regarding the security
of the informatics systems

24-11-2004

“The adoption at
national level of the European and
international recognised standards and
the encouragement of their application
creates the necessary framework for
defining the IT security policies of
the organisations. Moreover, this
autumn the first national standard
regarding the security of the
informatics systems was adopted
transposing the provisions of the
ISO/IEC 17799 – “Information
Technology” standard – Code of
good practice for the management of
the information security. The Romanian
version is available at the National
Standardisation Body in Romania
(ASRO). By the end of this year MCTI
will support the adoption of the first
part of the ISO 15 408 standard, known
as “Common Criteria for evaluating
the systems’ and applications’
security”. Both standards are
recognised in the European Council
Resolutions, their implementation at
organisational level being optional”
stated today, November 12th
2004, Liviu Nicolescu, Director for
Regulations and Standards in
Information Technology, Antifraud and
Networks Security, during the
“Information Security Management –
an instrument for the increase of
competitiveness of Romanian companies
in view of EU accession” seminar. http://www.mcti.ro/2268.html

The Financial Resources for the
Universal Service Fund Have Been
Established

11-11-2004

Wednesday, November
10, 2004, the Government Decision
no.1872/2004 for the approval of the
amendments to the 2004 income and
expenditure budget of the National
Regulatory Authority for
Communications was published in the
Official Journal of Romania, Part I,
no.1040. Based on this normative act,
within the ANRC budget for the year
2004, the resources allotted for
financing universal service are
specifically itemised both in Chapter
“Incomes” and in Chapter
“Expenditures”. The amount of the
universal service fund for 2004 is
approximately EUR14.3 million, i.e.
0.8% from the turnover of the
providers of electronic communications
public networks and of the publicly
available telephone services providers
with a 2003 registered turnover
exceeding or equal to EUR 3 million.
The turnover registered by the
respective providers was beforehand
diminished by the incomes resulted
from interconnection services and from
roaming services offered on the
wholesale market to the mobile
telephony providers outside Romania
for their users located in Romania. http://www.anrc.ro/en/11noiembrie2004.htm

The Financial Resources for the
Universal Service Fund Have Been
Established

11-11-2004

Wednesday, November
10, 2004, the Government Decision
no.1872/2004 for the approval of the
amendments to the 2004 income and
expenditure budget of the National
Regulatory Authority for
Communications was published in the
Official Journal of Romania, Part I,
no.1040. Based on this normative act,
within the ANRC budget for the year
2004, the resources allotted for
financing universal service are
specifically itemised both in Chapter
“Incomes” and in Chapter
“Expenditures”. The amount of the
universal service fund for 2004 is
approximately EUR14.3 million, i.e.
0.8% from the turnover of the
providers of electronic communications
public networks and of the publicly
available telephone services providers
with a 2003 registered turnover
exceeding or equal to EUR 3 million.
The turnover registered by the
respective providers was beforehand
diminished by the incomes resulted
from interconnection services and from
roaming services offered on the
wholesale market to the mobile
telephony providers outside Romania
for their users located in Romania. http://www.anrc.ro/en/11noiembrie2004.htm

Online Company Registration

8-11-2004

The Trade Registry is planning to introduce the possibility of register a company online, according to Claudiu Seucan, state secretary in the justice ministry, who said the move comes as part of the government’s efforts to reduce the registration time for a company. The authorities recently said the registration period was cut from two weeks to just three days, a move accompanied by a tax cut by 60 percent but companies said it still took longer mainly due to the inappropriate behavior of the public servants. The initiative is still relying on the companies’ possibility to register their electronic signatures for which electronic certificates and specialized software are required, which is to make registration take even longer.

Source : BR Daily - Business
Media Group

More than 4700 big Taxpayer Statements Posted Online through www.e-guvernare.ro

30-10-2004

By the end of September 2004, by means of the online services available through the National Electronic System (www.e-guvernare.ro), 428 big taxpayer companies in Bucharest posted online 1080 statements for the month of August, addressed to the Ministry of Public Finance, ANOFM, CNPAS, CNAS.
Presently, on www.e-guvernare.ro there are over 160 forms, involving 465 public institutions and 7 on line services for companies which are available 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.http://www.mcti.ro/2226.html

New
Technology From Zapp

17-10-2004

Mobile
telephony operator Zapp, the only
company running the CDMA 450 system in
Romania, has announced its wireless
broadband technology EV-DO (EVolution
Data Optimized) is now available
nationwide.
Zapp is providing the EV-DO technology
as part of its Zapp Internet Express
service that can be used in Bucharest
and all the county capitals of
Romania, company officials said.
"We are now providing Internet
access that is at least three times
faster and three times cheaper than
before," explained Miron Stratan,
Zapp's EV-DO project manager.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=15147

Orange
Romania Unleashes EDGE

17-10-2004

The
competition among the main mobile
telephony operators is becoming
increasingly fiercer when it comes to
high-speed wireless Internet access
offers and to multimedia services for
the mobile phone, as Orange has
launched EDGE, a technology that
allows for three times the speed of
the traditional GPRS.
The technology is somewhere between
the 2G telephony - mobile telephony
services focusing on voice calls and
the 3G telephony, which allows for
high speed Internet access and video
telephony.
"We chose to implement EDGE and
not move directly to 3G for
cautiousness reasons. The current
stage of the telecommunications market
in Romania favours this approach.
There are 60,000 GPRS clients we hope
will migrate to this new technology,
" said Yves Gauthier, Orange's
commercial director. The investments
in the implementation of EDGE amounted
to $12 million, and were to be
recovered in the next three to four
years, the Orange officials specified.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=15074

ARtelecom
Might Be Integrated In RomTelecom

12-10-2004

Internet
services provider ARtelecom could
merge by absorption with RomTelecom,
the operation being a first step in
consolidating RomTelecom’s strategy
on data transfers and Internet access,
sources with ARtelecom were quoted as
saying. ARtelecom was founded in June
2001 and communication services and
solutions based on IP technology have
been available since June 2002. The
main shareholder is RomTelecom with
over 99 percent of the share capital.
The company’s infrastructure was
developed by Intracom Bucharest and it
is based on Cisco, HP, Sun Systems and
MIND CTI equipment.http://www.businessromania.com/index.php?x=readnews&sid=5470

Government
delays pulling the plug on Cosmorom

5-10-2004

OTE's failed mobile phone business in Romania has been piling up debt for the past three years with no end in sight.
Before the summer vacation the former IT&C Minister Dan Nica promised a solution to this problem by September. However, neither OTE nor the IT&C Ministry has yet made a statement on this.
The mainstream take on the future of Cosmorom is that no decision will be made by December this year at the earliest when elections are over.
RomTelecom's management board has so far agreed to pay $24 million from the debt mountain Cosmorom has accrued in two years of loss making operations. Alpha Bank Romania was paid $10 million from a total overdue debt of $30 million. The remaining $20 million was rescheduled. In another deal, Romtelecom paid ING Bank Amsterdam $13.8 million from a debt account of $15 million. Back in January 2002, Romtelecom issued a corporate guarantee letter to ING Bank Amsterdam in effect taking over Cosmorom's debt.http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1328

Connex
Ready To Launch 3G Services

3-10-2004

Mobile
telephony operator Connex teamed up
with Siemens and Ericsson for the
first demonstration, on the Romanian
market, of the videotelephony service
based on 3G. The event took place at
the end of last week.
"This is not jus a lab
test," Ted Lattimore, Connex
president and COO said before starting
what he called "the first 3G
video call in Romania." The call
was made to an office from the
Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology (MCTI)
building. Minister Adriana Ticau
answered the phone and she talked with
Ted Lattimore for almost 3 minutes.
The demonstration aimed to show that
Connex' telephony network is ready for
the transition to 3G services, company
officials said. "We are
determined to continue to develop
practical ways for voice, image and
videotelephony communication,"
Ted Lattimore stated.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14980

Zapp
Strikes Deal With Germanos

23-09-2004

Germanos,
the largest telecom equipment retail
chain on the Romanian market, is also
to become a dealer for the products
and services of Zapp, the mobile
telephone operator that uses the CDMA
450 technology.
The agreement is part of Zapp's
development strategy to concentrate
its efforts on attracting individual
customers, alongside its business
clients that are chiefly interested in
its data traffic services.
"We have 240,000 users at the
moment and we hope to see this number
grow significantly by the end of the
year," said Cuneyt Turktan,
president of the company's Board of
Directors. Besides the addition of new
subscribers, Zapp also confirmed its
first half-year turnover to have
exceeded $35 million. The company will
rely on the end-of-year period to
bring its turnover up to $80 million,
as compared with $52 million in 2003.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14925

Richard
Moat Takes Over As Orange Romania CEO

16-09-2004

The
former head of Orange Denmark,
British-born Richard Moat, has been
appointed chief executive officer of
the Romanian telephony operator
following a meeting of Orange
Romania's Board of Directors.
Richard Moat thus replaces Bernard
Moscheni, who will run Orange's
Belgium arm, Mobistar. Moat was at the
helm of Orange's Danish branch, sold
to TeliaSonera early in July 2004 for
600 million euros. He was also chief
executive officer of TA Orange, the
operator's branch in Thailand, between
2000-2002.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14901

Romanian
Cybercriminals Better Organised To Fight
Authorities

14-09-2004

Cybercrime
is like any other scam you pull in the
real world," says Varujan
Pambuccian, chairman of the IT&C
Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
The damages caused by Romanian hackers
worldwide amounted to an estimated 2 -
4 million dollars, according to
officials with Romanian institutions
specialising in fighting cybercrime.
The attacks from the Romanian
"cybercriminals" have
further implications beyond the
financial realm, Varujan Pambuccian
stated. "Two million dollars is
not that much, but we have a lot to
lose in terms of image." Numerous
e-commerce websites have halted
transactions to clients from Romania
following several such attacks
originating in this area. Still, the
Romanian officials feel that many of
those who commit such crimes are very
far from being computer wizards.
"Seventy percent of the total
electronic frauds committed by
Romanians consist in precisely these
scams," says Virgil Spiridon,
head of the Cybercrime Unit of the
Organised Crime Fighting and Anti-drug
General Department. He explained that
most cases were not complex
operations, which would entail a lot
of effort on the part of the
perpetrators. "There are very few
real hackers in Romania," Varujan
Pambuccian stated.
The direction Internet fraud is taking
is not in the least bit reassuring as
far as the authorities are concerned.
"The shift towards organised
cybercrime is becoming increasingly
obvious. Whereas we were dealing with
lone criminals at first, we are now
facing very well organised
networks," says Ioana Albani, a
prosecutor with the Cybercrime Unit of
the Prosecutor's Office within the
High Court of Justice and Cassation.
She mentioned a recent case involving
approximately 50 people as an example
in this regard.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14882

United States, Romanian Governments partner to combat cyber crime

9-09-2004

Romtelecom's
new management has set itself the goal
of turning the company into a modern
European telco but that can only be
done if the organization can put up
with the pain of cutting payroll by
thousands of USD and sacking
entrenched management Romtelecom is
carrying out a series of changes in
top and middle management in order to
increase efficiency. The country's
fixed line operator has seen
widespread changes within its
management and more resignations may
be pending. Cristian Nitu, technical
director and former general manager of
RomTelecom's Internet Service
Providing arm ARTelecom, was recently
replaced by Vasile Cazacu as a
technical director. "Nitu was one
of the best specialists Romtelecom
had. Now the management belongs to
mercenaries. The fact that the former
financial manager Leonidas Skarlatos
resigned proves that there may be
problems in Romtelecom's books,"
said a former Romtelecom employee, who
recently resigned over the lack of
flexibility and communication among
management.
http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1237

Eastern Europe
leads the way in digital 450

6-09-2004

Bucharest will this week host the get-together of the CDMA450 community in an attempt to build further momentum for the standard that competes with GSM globally.
About a dozen companies from three continents will take part in the event. Qualcomm officials including Luigi Gasparollo, IT&C Ministry officials, Chris Bataillard, CEO of Inquam, UK, and other keynote speakers will attend the event.
The history of CDMA450 revolves around the stories of the former analogue NMT operators that could not survive the better business model of their GSM competitors.
UK-based Inquam saw a window of opportunity and decided to back the very first venture of CDMA in Europe when it took over Romania's Telemobil. At first, Telemobil made quite a splash in advertising and promotion but achieved little in terms of market share and revenue.http://www.businessromania.com/read.php?aid=1245

United States, Romanian Governments partner to combat cyber crime

1-09-2004

Today the U.S. Embassy and the Ministry of
Communications and Information
Technology launched an Introductory
Guide for the Implementation of Cyber
Crime Legislation, funded by the U.S. Government through USAID.The Guide, designed as a
training tool for Romanian law
enforcement authorities in charge of
fighting cyber crime, is one among
several results of a three-year
collaboration among experts of the
U.S. Embassy, the Ministry of
Communications and IT, and the
U.S.-based consulting organization
InterNews.

U.S. Ambassador Dr. Jack Dyer Crouch
II and Minister of Communications and
IT Adriana Ticau presented opening
remarks at the event, which was held
at the Software Park Building in
Galati.

In 2003, the first year since liberalisation, 1039 providers of publicly available electronic communications networks and services were registered following their first report on statistical data and declared to begin activity in 2003. Out of these, 20 providers gradually gave up the right to provide electronic communications networks and services, while 149 providers declared that they did not provide electronic communications networks and services in 2003. ANRC registered 870 active providers on the electronic communications market in 2003.
Among the providers of telephony services, 13 providers actually provided local call services, 11 providers had a functional offer on the market of long distance calls and 24 providers offered international call services.
http://www.anrc.ro/en/11august2004_3.htm

The Number of Subscriptions for
Internet Services Doubled

11-08-2004

Wednesday, August 11, 2004, during the press conference organised at the headquarters of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications, the President of ANRC, Ion Smeeianu, together with other representatives of ANRC, presented the evolution of the number of subscribers for the main types of electronic communications services between 2002 – 2003.
Thus, in this period, the main services provided by means of the public telephony networks registered an important rise, confirming the developing trend of the Romanian market of electronic communications. The mobile telephony market share increased considerably, by approximately 2 million subscribers, while the number of subscriptions for Internet services doubled within one year.
http://www.anrc.ro/en/11august2004_2.htm

ANRC Identifies, Together with the
Industry, the Solutions for the
Implementation of the Universal Service

22-07-2004

During the today meeting of the
Consultative Council, ANRC held
discussions with the representatives
of the electronic communications
industry about the means to implement
the universal service by installing
telecentres and public pay telephones.
The industry comments and
recommendations on the draft Decision
on the principles and prerequisites of
the reference offer for the unbundled
access to the local loop, as well as
the amendments to the decision for the
approval of the Regulation on the
identification of the relevant markets
within the electronic communications
sector were also debated. The
consultation on the two draft
decisions represents the last stage
before the adoption of the documents
and the implementation of the
respective provisions.
http://www.anrc.ro/en/22iulie2004.htm

MCTI granted 2 experimental 3G
licenses

21-07-2004

“Today we have granted the first two 3G experimental licenses with a view to testing the 3G technologies in Romania. These licenses will enable the two equipment producers who applied for them to test the infrastructure required by the 3G systems – radio stations and the afferent aerials.
The testing licenses will operate up to the date of issuance of the licenses for the coming 3G operators for Bucharest, Brasov, Craiova, Cluj-Napoca and the DN1 national road within the segment Bucharest - Braşov”, Adriana Ţicău, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, declared at the press conference held today, July 21, 2004, at MCTI headquarters.
In the first phase, the tests will focus on the voice and data transmissions, followed by experiments regarding film and TV watching on the mobile phone, as well as regarding videophone services.
Experimental licenses are cost-free and are exempt from the frequency spectrum fee. Ericsson şi Siemens, the holders of licenses, do not have the right to use them for commercial purposes, provision of services to third parties being forbidden over the testing license validity period.
http://www.mcti.ro/mcti0.html?page=2060

MCTI Puts Four 3G
Licences Up For Auction

14-07-2004

The
Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology (MCTI)
announced it would auction off four
licences for the frequencies used by
third generation (3G) mobile telephony
today.
"The task specification handbook
costs $20,000. Each winner of the
auction will pay a $35 million
tariff," said Dan Nica, who
handed in his resignation from his
position as Communications Minister
last Saturday and is to transfer his
duties to Adriana Ticau today.
The first tranche of the tariff, which
stands at 10.5 million dollars, must
be paid within 120 days from the date
the licence was granted. The rest of
the money will be paid in five equal
annual instalments, worth $4.9
million, on January 30 each year from
2006 onwards.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14576

Romania's EU
Goals Could Conflict With Timisoara's

13-07-2004

Wall Street
Journal Europe, the continental
edition of the best known business
newspaper in the world, last week
published, in its Thursday edition, an
article, on the first page, about the
IT sector of Timisoara. Such articles
are seldom published. In the second
page of the same edition, the
newspaper ran a column about the
freedom of the press in Romania. Here
is a summary of the article on the IT
sector. In Timisoara, where the 1989
revolution that overthrew Romania's
dictatorship began, dozens of young
software engineers sit hunched over
computers in a neighbourhood still
covered with bullet holes inflicted by
the communist army. The giant
pig-processing plant that once
dominated the local economy has been
obscured by the high-technology
factories of Alcatel SA, Siemens AG
and Solectron Corp.http://www.usbiz.ro/digit/show-news.php3?id=14569